ATTENTION: Assignment and News Editors for Toronto/GTA for WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16 at NOON

Community, labour and social activists will be converging on Bob Rae's Toronto constituency office at 12 noon on Wednesday, April 16, to deliver a giant ballot to remind the newly elected Liberal MP and his fellow Liberal members to back an upcoming motion by the NDP to stop the Harper government's proposed amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

The changes to the IRPA would give unprecedented arbitrary power to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to impose quotas, to dismiss some applications without a right of review, and to fast-track other applicants and allow them to jump the queue at the Minister's discretion. The amendments to IRPA would also make it harder for families to be reunited while expanding the exploitation of temporary workers as a permanent feature of the labour force.

"On April 10 the Liberals could have backed an earlier NDP motion to derail the IRPA changes," says Wayne Hanley, "but they didn't and Canada's immigrant communities aren't about to forget that, especially if the Liberals back out again on the next chance to stop the IRPA amendments."

Hanley is the National President of UFCW Canada. UFCW Canada is one of Canada's largest private sector unions and a member of the alliance arriving at Rae's constituency office Wednesday to pressure Rae and his fellow Liberals to support a new motion tabled by NDP Immigration Critic Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) that would separate the IRPA amendments from Bill C-50: the budget implementation bill to which the IRPA amendments are currently attached. Chow's motion would split the budget bill into two bills and allow the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Finance to study, alter, or remove the immigration portion of this bill. This motion would not be a confidence motion unless the Harper Conservatives chose to make it so.

The motion is expected to be voted on this week in Parliament unless the government uses parliamentary manoeuvres to prevent it from moving forward.

ATTENTION: GTA ASSIGNMENT AND NEWS EDITORS FOR WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

WHAT:Deputation, press conference and ballot deliveryto Bob Rae and fellow members of the Liberal Party regardingproposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act